


HERE, NOW

by Knightsbridge07, wakandawinterprincess



Category: Black Panther (2018), Insatiable AU, RoyalShield - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, RoyalShield
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 14:52:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18033794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knightsbridge07/pseuds/Knightsbridge07, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakandawinterprincess/pseuds/wakandawinterprincess
Summary: Shuri begins to understand that she must look forward.





	HERE, NOW

**Author's Note:**

  * For [baby_bubastis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/baby_bubastis/gifts), [wakandawinterprincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wakandawinterprincess/gifts), [TheRavynFire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRavynFire/gifts), [SilverCherie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverCherie/gifts), [Malaiikka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malaiikka/gifts), [CindersAndBrimstone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CindersAndBrimstone/gifts), [misstoryunfolded](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misstoryunfolded/gifts), [rachealina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rachealina/gifts), [chizoma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chizoma/gifts), [lilithenaltum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithenaltum/gifts), [ShootingStar13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShootingStar13/gifts), [crazyfan15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazyfan15/gifts), [Cao_the_dreamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cao_the_dreamer/gifts), [2Shay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/2Shay/gifts).



> Feeling inspired AND challenged by wakandawinterprincess' INSATIABLE universe, I had to pen this little gem. I hope you all like it. Above all, I hope SHE likes it. Again, comments, comments. I do love them.

Standing here, on a precipice, literally between the heavens and the earth, Shuri lets go. She falls into Steve Rogers, into his kiss, like falling into a dream. Everything is color-saturated, hyper-real, and longing to be explored.

 

And she wonders why she had fought so hard to hang on to Project Decima, to keep it going. Why had she let it consume nearly all of her waking hours?

 

 _Why_ , when her countrymen needed her to lead them?

 

 _Why_ , when it threatened her already-frayed sanity?

 

 _Why_ , when there was _this_?

 

Steve, the cosmos above them, and the twinkling city below them…soft gasps and tender touches and pure sweetness.

 

Love.

 

“ _Shuri, do you …?_ ”

 

“ _Yes, Steve, I **do**_.” 

 

Their half-spoken declaration plays on a loop in her mind. He feels solid and soft all at once, and it gives her the sensation of being buoyed up and weighed down, as though by a warm blanket.

 

The kiss ends and Shuri keeps her eyes closed until she regains her breath. When she opens them, Steve is gazing at her, as though he’s trying to capture every detail of her, and it sends a tingling tremor throughout her body. That’s when she notices the hints of green at the center of his blue eyes, the dark lashes that span out from the lids, all the planes and curves of his face. He was undeniably handsome, but being this close and seeing how his features came together revealed him to her new ways.

 

He’s beautiful and powered by an indomitable heart. In the midst of Thanos’ devastation, she had failed to notice that. She had not stopped to think of how he kept fighting and giving and helping and comforting, even though his own emotional well had run dry. The realization shocks and saddens her. It takes her breath away for a moment, and she braces her forehead against his to ground herself.

 

The Titan had taken half of everything in the universe. That was why she hadn’t wanted to end Project Decima. People disappeared from existence right in the middle of their daily living, and it was grossly unjust. She wanted to remedy that injustice. Only now, however, does Shuri begin to understand that she can’t. As much as she wants a reunion with her brother and James and the others, it becomes clear to her that it can’t happen.

 

The realization hurts, but not like she expects. She’d been hurting for years, they _all_ had. It simply felt like one more rock on top of a pile of rocks. So, Shuri lets them go—T’Challa, James, Sam, Vision, Wanda—she wraps their memories in love and warmth like a burial shroud and lays them to rest in a distinct place in her mind, a place she knows she’ll visit from time to time when the world is too chaotic, and she needs to clear her head. They will appear to her in her dreams, but she won’t wake with fear and guilt. Their ghosts will brush by her every now and again, and she will smile.

 

When she looks again at Steve, he’s holding his breath. His blue-green eyes are unblinking until she lays a delicate hand on his scruffy jaw. He exhales slowly and leans into her touch. His release is palpable, a warm, humid breeze in the cool of the observatory. She kisses him again.

 

“I love you, Steve Rogers.”

**Author's Note:**

> For baby_bubastis, wakandawinterprincess, TheRavynFire, SilverCherie, Leodicaprih0e, CindersAndBrimstone, misstoryunfolded, rachealina, chizoma, lilithenaltum, ShootingStar13, crazyfan15, Cao_the_dreamer, 2Shay


End file.
